What began as a simple journey has turned into so much more...

Session 38: Complete and Utter Bull!

"Mess with the bull, you're going to get the horns..."

Game Date: Sunday, October 20, 2013In-world time: pre-dawn hours of the 39th day of Summer, 998 AC.

Note: Lisa/Praxis, Elizabeth/Ginger, and Greg/Fury were not present for this game. This was explained narratively (see below).

After escaping the attack from the vampire spawn and the RQ Avenger/secret servant of Vecna, Akara noted that the souls of the slain Avengers were not being taken by ravens, but were instead being sucked into the Thayan airship up above the capital. The idea to use High Lady Shadowmantle’s flying carpets to go up and attack her great, great aunt was raised, but apparently the keyword for those carpets was held by the slain servant she’d sent to help the party, her man Bernard. So three of the party members (Praxis, Ginger, & Fury) decided to rush off to Lady Shadowmantle’s estate to get the password from her directly, while the other 3 (i.e., the present players) decided to stay with the surviving High Lords & try to find a safer place to stay.

As if sent as a sign from the gods, a huge, radiant raven flew up into the sky, circling one nearby part of the city, dropping feathers of radiant power onto the city. The party investigated, and found the Ionian embassy in Brakana, headed by an Ambassador who was an old friend of Akara’s: the dwarven RQ cleric Amaranth Cairn. He and his two assistants/staffers were keeping the undead at bay, but there was a large above-ground set of coffin-holding buildings that were creating a bit of a problem.

The party rushed off to a canal regulator station, where they opened the floodgates, letting water pour through the sewers, knocking out support structures, and effectively collapsing the cemetery buildings. That problem solved, the Ambassador received an urgent call for help from another one of the RQ avengers who was guarding High Lord Malfeather.

The Avenger, an elf named Theramin Brightblade, conveyed that minotaurs were attacking Lord Malfeather in the midst of all the confusion with the undead. The party rushed off to Lord Malfeather’s estate, and found that while Brightblade had died, two RQ Avengers remained alive: the halfling Giuliana Underhand and the gnoll Laughingtooth (both of whom served as NPCs in the coming fight to balance-out the smaller party of 3’s combat needs). They also found High Lord Paulo Maximo, whom the party never liked, and who was more concerned with his own safety than anything else.

The party found Lord Malfeather (and his daughter Olive) defending his Mythal (effecively an ancient Elven magic version of a Stargate) from two minotaurs the party knew well: Mr. Krup & Mr. Vandamaar. Lord Maximo approached Malfeather and (curse his sudden but inevitable betrayal!) turned out to be a form-shifting type of minotaur (a Yikaria) in disguise! Malfeather was caught off-guard and dramatically injured, taking him out of the fight while his daughter cared for him.

Krup & Vandamaar summoned a demonic minotaur from whatever hell dimension is holding their army and kept working on the mythal while the demon-minotaur & Yikaria faced off against the party. Though the party successfully slayed Maximo/Yikaria and the giant demon/minotaur thing, they did not stop Krup & Vandamaar from STEALINGTHEMYTHAL (Carmen Sandiego style, but with teleportation magic).

In a rage, after the combat, High Lord Malfeather enacted the secret blood magic (that ancient forbidden power that only Malfeather, Ginger, and Baba Yaga currently know how to use), calling upon the Fey heritage of his blood (remember in the feasts session, Jak had learned that Malfeather was actually descended from some Archfey) to empower the Fey magic of Coventry and command every Fey creature in Coventry to “Destroy the Outsiders”. This magic killed him, and it unfortunately left the vagueries of defining “outsiders” to crazy fey powers from the realms of dreams & nightmares.

The party took brief shelter in the Malfeather mansion, where Olive enacted a ritual that rejuvenated the party (giving those 3, at least, the effect of an extended rest), before they headed back to the Embassy to meet up with the others.